


Salad Days

by Junkflesh



Category: Rick and Morty
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-16 14:53:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29826633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Junkflesh/pseuds/Junkflesh
Summary: Ricks been acting weird, and Morty wants to help.
Relationships: Rick Sanchez/Morty Smith
Kudos: 15





	Salad Days

thump thumP THUMP THUM- SLAM

The walls of the smith residences garage tremble. Water damaged sage paint flecking off like cigarette ash; dusting the surrounding sifi tools and boxes from the harsh impact of the connecting door from to the garage making its forceful conclusion as it slams shut. This successfully, if only momentarily, granted the hot headed Rick some privacy from the equally if not hotter headed Morty that was shouting and huffing right on his trail. 

“Hey! You cant just walk away from me anymore R-R-Rick!  
You-we have to talk!” Mortys shouts are muffled through the solid wooden door.  
“Only -uuUrp 10% accurate as per usual-“  
The song of a click, a pull, followed by a chorus of tinny sounding empty aluminum cans raining down and scattering across the dry concrete of the garage floor from ricks space car is stomped out only by the resuming of ricks verbal rhetorical retort to his grandsons incessant groaning.  
“One: I’m not “running away”. This *talk* is absolutely pointless and a waste of my time. You aren’t my nurse so go ahead reach your head out from all the way up my shitter. you-y-what are you some kinda little therapist or something now, Morty? that wong is really wearing off on your oh so impressionable little peanut huh?” 

Morty closes in on the door. Yet again slightly Quaking the shotty frame of the add-on garage as he grunts and pulls on it the best he can. “And TWO. I’m only talking now to say FUCK YOU and GOO-urrp-OD BYEE-“  
“Y-you sonofa- O-OPEN THIS DOOR RICK! Y-yy-you better not be leaving Rick- no- open th-th-the-this-RR” 

Rick doesn’t hesitate to shift his body into his flying get out of jail free card as he irritatedly yells out a sarcastic: “Hey Houdini, this is exactly what I’m saying! y-you- I’m here only a year and I know it’s a PUSH d-door morty. You PUSH IT Morty.”  
Pinching the bridge of his nose at the younger mans insolence, Rick quickly presses the garage door opening button as morty swings open the one connected to the house. His face is flushed with growing anger and fading embarrassment from his earlier fumble at entry.  
“Rick so help me god get o-out of the CAR-“  
Right as Rick has scrambled and tugged the door to his ship almost completely closed morty winds up and slams it with a kick to the heavy silver door in disapproval, leaving a slight white streak from his shoe rubber. Rick pauses and looks down through the glass at morty’s dilated pupils with an authoritative glare that only a grandpa like Rick could serve, and it shot a clear non verbal message straight to morty: a warning.  
Morty knows it’s serious when Rick gets quiet, everything in the boy is shouting at him to run. To apologize and beg for the mans forgiveness- but morty isn’t having it today. Enough was enough and he knew nothing would ever change if he didn’t take a stand against the elderly tyrant of his life.  
So Morty holds the Stare, they continue this for moments that feel as if they stretch on forever. Bullets of sweat slide down the side of mortys red melon like condensation on a glass of beer. He parts his lips. 

“Get out of the car Rick. I need to talk to you.”  
Without a waver in his voice and a face as serious as a heart attack, he speaks again. Tilting his head and leaning in closer to the cool exterior dome surrounding Rick  
“Be a man about it.”  
Uhoh. Uhoh morty uhoh. what did you do now? If the look that Rick gave him before made morty want to drop trow and run, this NEW look makes morty almost wish he were never born to begin with. If murder were a person, this would be its resting face. Ricks eyes widen with awe and anger washes over his features, it seems Rick wasn’t having it either today. 

Morty instantly regrets his words as brick shitting fear runs through him. Why did he say that! He’s so entirely fed up of Rick cowering away from every confrontation or issue that he deems not worth his time. Morty takes a step back as Rick Swiftly reaches down to His door handle, the shorter boy braces himself and throws his hands up In front of him with just a millisecond to react before Rick swings open the door right into morty with all the power that a 6 ft. Something man can muster. It’s enough to throw morty flat onto his ass a few feet from the vehicle in front of ricks work table. 

In a flash Rick is out and looming over morty looking as if he’d almost sobered with anger, or maybe intoxicated with rage.  
“be a man morty? BE A MAN?”  
Morty shoots up into a sitting position once he shakes the fall out of his head and tries quasi crab walking back from Rick only for the taller man to step on the boys calf, making him Yelp out with surprise and fear.  
“Do you know how much I’ve done in my life morty? Do you know the countless fucking WORLDS I’ve CREATED and SAVED and KILLED off for the fun of it morty? Do you know half the shit I’ve done even m-morty? No. Of course not, and you know why morty?-“ He bends over, quickly encroaching on his grandsons small pale frame, casting a shadow over it from the LED lights above. “Because you’re a stupid fucking piece of shit morty! You’re as dumb as they come, but you got some balls- speaking WAY outta line to me even after all I’ve done in my life-after the shit I’ve done for you and this family!” 

Now it’s mortys time to see red.  
He perches his back up, stiffening his torso and sticking out his neck with a  
“ ‘Everything youve done’ Rick? And what exactly might that be? All you’ve done is make our lives hell, a-aa-and we’re all to scared to say it! F-for the most part.. I mean I think dads been pretty clear a-about it but- all you’ve ‘done for this family’ is abandon, hurt, kill, manipulate and tear us all apart Rick!”  
Rick stands up straight and folds his arms.  
“OoLaLa, we’re really using some big words today huh? Careful morty don’t blow a fuse with all that thinking. How about I ‘manipulate’ you right off of my BACK morty? y-yy-you know what even- what even are we arguing about? huh? I don’t see the problem here Morty- yknow besides you not knowing your *place*” 

He emphasizes ‘place’ by adding momentary pressure to Mortys boney calf before twisting his foot off and stepping back to await an answer. “we- this is about YOU! you can’t keep- keeping us out! You can’t- you cant keep *me* out. I’m your partner rick, I care about you.” Morty takes a softer tone; he doesn’t want to argue or be mean. He gets so caught up in how angry Rick makes him with his constant jabs and gaslighting. But they need to have this conversation.  
“Terrific. Truly. I mean Wow, That was so sweet I think I threw up a little bit. I’m so touched. Oh wow just-just dust my cheeks with blush.”  
With a roll of the eyes Rick turns around to fiddle with his almost empty flask of whatever alien googah off-planet “import” alcohol he’s been sipping on. He needs something stronger than gasoline to deal with his 14 year old grandprick. “Ugh.. Rick-“ “Fine.” Rick turns his head over his shoulder gesturing to Morty’s general direction. “You want to talk? Then talk.”  
He turns back away. Morty wavers for a moment but rises to his feet, steading himself on ricks work table and trying his best to massage the sting of the earlier impact out his arm and lower back, but it wasn’t the worst ricks put him through admittedly. He faces up to examine the stretch of the older mans grandiloquent height in comparison to his own. He’s standing with his back to morty, Facing the street outside and gazing at the blue north-western sky. It was a nice day out, the sunny warm ultra violet breeze carried a slight crisp whiff of changing seasons, whooshing in through the garage and meeting both men in turn.  
It’s soothing in the otherwise hostile atmosphere.  
It’s quiet. 

“On the last few adventures you didn’t feel..right. I don’t know, you..you seemed like you were just a second off with your reaction time and- you were just...I don’t know, maybe reckless is the word?”  
Morty trails off when he sees Rick shake his head at the perceived insults.  
“Point- point being I care about you, I feel like I should know...yknow... if somethings throwing you off then you should feel open to share if-if you ever felt so inclined to. Because...more than your partner, I’m your family Rick.” 

“...” 

Morty shuffles up to His grandpa slowly, as if ricks a skittish cat that could be gone in the flash of an eye if frightened. He steps over the empty beer cans and pauses right behind Rick. He watches from behind as He takes a swig from his flask, lean muscle flexing the white lab coat as it bunches and strains the material around his body perfectly. Of course perfectly. It was engineered by Rick for Rick. Even if it seems that the only thing the man ever cares about in the entire world- all conceivable worlds- is himself, mortys not like that. And deep down morty doesn’t think Rick is like that either. “I’m here for you, Rick.”  
Rick was about to open his mouth to try and break the thick uncomfortable tension created by the mushy confrontation with a verbal dismissive wave of the hand when he felt a slight pressure on his mid back. Morty gently rests his forehead in the middle divot of ricks shoulder blades. He takes Ricks lack of violence as a good sign. So.... yknow fuck it. might as well go all the way. The finishing move: He brings his hands up to embrace his grandpa, small soft fingers lacing around ricks flat gut. Ricks long since put his emptied flask away into his interior breast pocket and stands there unmoving for a few moments, hands remaining at his sides. Then just as the moments dragged on almost a little awkwardly long; with a slight hitch of his breath he moves, morty instinctually pulls away slightly as the man turns in front of him but is brought back closer as rick embraces morty just as he did to rick moments before. He’s still quiet, but he brings his hand up to cradle his grandsons head. At the end of the day he still had a weak spot for the little dummy, under any other conditions this would be somewhat uncharacteristic for Rick. But with the family out of the house for the moment, the alien liquid courage he just downed along with the 12 pack of beer he sported throughout the day, all complimented with the stress he truthfully has been under lately all coming to a crescendo earlier in their spat: Rick gave in. 

He’s emotionally cornered and exhausted. As much of an idiot as it made him feel, it’s almost as if he melts into the younger mans touch. Like, really melting. Like why is something actually melting off of him- ‘oh no. Oh god this sucks. I can’t be CRYING right now. ugh. Last time i ever down whatever boohoo alcohol concoction I stored up in his flask.’ He thinks. But why can’t he stop, why cant he pull away? In fact he only curls closer in on his younger companion. This was so embarrassing and degrading for the man. The melting didn’t stop, his bones felt as if they were liquifying like the salt spray pouring from his eyes. He kneels onto Morty as he holds the older man tighter in response to Rick doing the same to him. Mortys yellow shirt resembles more of a hanker chief now but he doesn’t mind in this moment. He’s never seen Rick cry before, well, he’s seen him Cry at stupid shit like the season 4 finale of ball fondlers but never *cry*. Never just raw emotion pouring out kinda cry. Rick’s silent and motionless aside from his sniffing and occasional jerking from all the involuntary sobbing. He’s now bent over almost half his height and holding onto Morty as if he were a pillow to cry into. Ricks so angry at himself but he can’t deny the level of comfort and release this gave him.  
Morty goes to take a step back in order to give himself some more stability but his foot catches an empty can, creating a crumpling sound that almost echoed through out the silence of the garage , if Rick had to guess; his pride would be sounding just about the same in that moment. This slightly snaps rick out of it however and he realizes just how hard he was squeezing his grandson, he un balls his fists from the youngests’ shirt and takes a step back to harshly wipe the tears off of his wrinkled cheeks as if they were invading his personal space. Mortys grip on his grandpa doesn’t leave but shifts to either side of his waist over his lab coat comfortingly. Morty can’t help but to be moved by all of this and tears prick the corner of his eyes too, but he knows that would only make Rick more uncomfortable so he fights it. Rick doesn’t look him in the eyes which is unusual for the proud and stoic man. But this wasn’t that same Rick, this one was softer , but not in a weak way. More of an in touch way, which in it of itself was pretty strong. 

“Ugf... sorry you had to see your grandpa like this Morty. You...you’re right. I guess I have been pushing myself a little hard lately.” Rick dries up the remainder of his blue moon tears and turns away slightly in shame, he feels so small. But, somehow safe with his grandson by his side. All though Morty was the LAST person he’d want to show this weakness to. In all honesty Rick still wants to look cool and untouchable to him most of all. And as if Morty read his mind: “N-No don’t be sorry. This isn’t weakness rick, this is exactly what I’m saying I’m here for! I care for you and for all I’m concerned you’re still my cool grandpa Rick. I mean you’ve see me cry an embarrassing amount of times, id say this makes us a little more even huh buddy?” Morty croons. He ducks his head down a little to try make eye contact with the languid Rick, flashing a gentle smile that that Rick returns. “Ha. Whatever MORTYY you punk little shit” Rick playfully noogies his grandson with a : “I guess you’re right about one thing.. hey how about we go get some ice cream huh morty? Wanna take a drive with your ol’ grandpa?”

Morty beams up at his grandfather.  
“I’d love to Rick!”

**Author's Note:**

> Any feedback is appreciated :)) follow me on Twitter @jessicasfeet5 !!


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